Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology
An international research centre
Dr Andrea Noske, the First Counsellor (Science) at the German Embassy in London, visited the University of Bristol on 7 June, touring the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology, the GW4 Cryo-EM facility, and the Isambard-AI supercomputer.
Andrea has previously been Head of Division at the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and Head of the Science and Technology section at the German Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The Scientist‘s TS Digest has published a snapshot article on the work of Dr Oskar Staufer, the MPBC Affiliated Group Leader based at the INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials.
Danielle Gerhard’s story looks at Oskar’s research, that uses “synthetic biology to study cancer and the tumor immune environment.”
Oskar has recently authored and co-authored several papers including:
University of Bristol VC Prof Evelyn Welch visited the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology in the School of Chemistry on 30 June.
Evelyn spoke with Centre Director Imre Berger, BBI Director Dek Woolfson and researchers including EPSRC-MPBC Doctoral Fellow Rafael Moreno Tortolero. She said it was “wonderful” to hear about the work being undertaken by the team, including research on silk, ALS, synthetic vaccines, protocells and artificial enzymes.
“Thank you to the Berger, Mann and Woolfson groups for demonstrating what happens when you share facilities and ideas so openly and effectively”, she said, adding: “I learned so much and look forward to the next visit”.
Congratulations to Dora Buzas – a member of both the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology, and the ADDovenom research team at University of Bristol – for passing her PhD viva on 15 June 2023.
Her PhD focused on the ADDomer vaccine development platform and the engineering of high-affinity binders. The project involved the structural analysis of the Adenovirus Penton base protein-derived ADDobody and also other scaffold proteins from chimeric origins.
Dora was supervised by Prof Imre Berger and Prof Christiane Berger-Schaffitzel.
Congratulations to Dr Jessica Cross, an ESPRC Doctoral Prize Fellow working in the Dodding/Woolfson labs, for making the shortlist of the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Rising Talent Program, and being one of two highly commended applicants in the Physical Sciences category. Jessica visited 10 Downing Street, where she met George Freeman MP (Minister of State for Science, Research & Innovation), and has attended a training day for shortlisted candidates at the Royal Society, and a reception at the House of Commons.
Among the 170 attendees at the reception were MPs, academics and representatives from L’Oréal and UNESCO. These events have given Jessica and the others the chance to showcase their research, raise awareness of the important contribution of women in science, and discuss barriers for women in STEM and the need for policy change.
Jessica said: “I am pleased and honoured to be recognised as a highly commended candidate by the L’Oreal UNESCO For Women in Science Program. It has been a fantastic opportunity to share our research and to network with inspiring women in science. This program is a good example of showcasing female talent in science and offering role models to the next generation of science leaders.”
Researchers from Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology labs in Bristol and Germany came together for two days of discussions and presentations at Clevedon Hall in March 2023.
Group leaders Imre Berger, Dek Woolfson and Stephen Mann (University of Bristol), Petra Schwille (Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried), Joachim Spatz (Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg) and Tanja Weil (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz) attended, alongside several researchers from each of their teams.
Prof Imre Berger, Direct
or of the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology, has talked to Mike Stiles about viruses, pan-coronavirus antivirals, and the importance of in silico design for Oracle’s Research In Action podcast. Among other topics, he discusses what it was like to keep research work going during the worst of the pandemic, and how close we are to a vaccine that works against all current and future coronavirus variants.
The German Ambassador to the UK, His Excellency Miguel Berger, visited the University of Bristol on 11 November, to meet Professor Evelyn Welch, the University’s Vice-Chancellor and President, and to discuss opportunities for UK-Germany education and research collaboration.
The Ambassador, accompanied by Dr Felix Karstens from the Embassy’s Political Department, met researchers from the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology, as well as the University’s Senior team, and staff and students in the School of Modern Languages.
During their tour, they were also shown the GW4 Facility for High-Resolution Electron Cryo-Microscopy in the University’s Life Sciences Building, which underpins ground-breaking research by providing analysis tools to researchers enabling them to study the molecular processes responsible for cell function or malfunction.
Dr Mark Allinson, the University’s Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching), said: “We are honoured to have hosted a visit from the German Ambassador. Bristol is fortunate to have a number of firmly embedded partnerships with Germany through its research and language teaching, and we hope today’s visit will further strengthen those links with our European peers.”
(A version of this story was originally published by University of Bristol)
Scientists have harnessed the potential of bacteria to help build advanced synthetic cells which mimic real life functionality. The research, led by the University of Bristol and published in Nature, makes important progress in deploying synthetic cells, known as protocells, to more accurately represent the complex compositions, structure, and function of living cells.
Establishing true-to-life functionality in protocells is a global grand challenge spanning multiple fields, ranging from bottom-up synthetic biology and bioengineering to origin of life research. Previous attempts to model protocells using microcapsules have fallen short, so the team of researchers turned to bacteria to build complex synthetic cells using a living material assembly process.
Professor Stephen Mann from the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry, and the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology, together with colleagues Drs Can Xu, Nicolas Martin (currently at the University of Bordeaux) and Mei Li in the Bristol Centre for Protolife Research have demonstrated an approach to the construction of highly complex protocells using viscous micro-droplets filled with living bacteria as a microscopic building site.
In the first step, the team exposed the empty droplets to two types of bacteria. One population spontaneously was captured within the droplets while the other was trapped at the droplet surface.
Then, both types of bacteria were destroyed so that the released cellular components remained trapped inside or on the surface of the droplets to produce membrane-coated bacteriogenic protocells containing thousands of biological molecules, parts and machinery.
The researchers discovered that the protocells were able to produce energy-rich molecules (ATP) via glycolysis and synthesize RNA and proteins by in vitro gene expression, indicating that the inherited bacterial components remained active in the synthetic cells.
Further testing the capacity of this technique, the team employed a series of chemical steps to remodel the bacteriogenic protocells structurally and morphologically. The released bacterial DNA was condensed into a single nucleus-like structure, and the droplet interior infiltrated with a cytoskeletal-like network of protein filaments and membrane-bounded water vacuoles.
As a step towards the construction of a synthetic/living cell entity, the researchers implanted living bacteria into the protocells to generate self-sustainable ATP production and long-term energization for glycolysis, gene expression and cytoskeletal assembly. Curiously, the protoliving constructs adopted an amoeba-like external morphology due to on-site bacterial metabolism and growth to produce a cellular bionic system with integrated life-like properties.
Corresponding author Professor Stephen Mann said: “Achieving high organisational and functional complexity in synthetic cells is difficult especially under close-to-equilibrium conditions. Hopefully, our current bacteriogenic approach will help to increase the complexity of current protocell models, facilitate the integration of myriad biological components and enable the development of energised cytomimetic systems.”
First author Dr Can Xu, Research Associate at the University of Bristol, added: “Our living-material assembly approach provides an opportunity for the bottom-up construction of symbiotic living/synthetic cell constructs. For example, using engineered bacteria it should be possible to fabricate complex modules for development in diagnostic and therapeutic areas of synthetic biology as well as in biomanufacturing and biotechnology in general.”
(This story was originally published by University of Bristol)
We are excited to introduce the newest member of the Max Planck Bristol Centre for Minimal Biology.
Rafael Moreno Tortolero has been awarded an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship to investigate the role of protein aggregates in health and disease.
We asked Rafa to introduce himself.
“I am a Venezuelan materials engineer by training (Simón Bolívar University, Venezuela), with an MSc in functional nanomaterials, a PhD in chemistry (University of Bristol, UK) and a penchant for fundamental medical research.
The latter has informed every step of my career so far. I worked with silk protein during my PhD to fabricate tissue engineering scaffolds. There, I stumbled with fundamental aspects of the protein that led me to continue my journey as an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow at the very prestigious Max Planck Bristol Centre, under the mentorship of the eminent Prof. Imre Berger.
In this fellowship, I will explore a fascinating subject: the relationship between functional and aberrant protein aggregates with health and disease. More specifically, the relationship between silk and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Both biological phenomena, one producing healthy ex-vivo protecting structures (silk) and the other causing a devastating neuronal disease, are perhaps more related than previously thought and are at the centre of my research. Inspired by the silk production machinery, removal mechanisms of toxic ALS-related aggregates will be explored through standard biochemical and biophysical techniques. Aiming to discover protein-based palliative treatments for this devastating and untreatable disease.”